Mariners may move Ichiro from leadoff spot

For 11 seasons, Ichiro Suzuki has been the Mariners’ leadoff hitter. In his 1,749 major-league games, there have been just a few dozen in which Ichiro wasn’t the first player in the Seattle lineup.

That may change this coming season. In fact, if Manager Eric Wedge can find the right batting combination, there’s a “good possibility” Ichiro will be batting somewhere else in the lineup, he told 710 ESPN Seattle radio on Wednesday evening.

“If you had to put a gun to my head right now, I’d probably be leaning in that direction, but I’m not going to just close myself off until Spring Training,” Wedge told the radio station.

So, who else might lead off for the Mariners? Maybe Dustin Ackley. Maybe Franklin Gutierrez. Maybe even Chone Figgins — if he can remember what a baseball bat is.

Sorry … that’s unfair to Figgins, who has struggled to find his offensive game since coming to Seattle two years ago. He’s not the only one; the Mariners have been the worst offensive team in the majors for the past two consecutive years.

Ichiro struggled at the plate last year, hitting just .272 – bad, for Ichiro – and watching his decade-long 200-hit streak come to an end.